Question

Alisa hopes to play beach volleyball in the olympics someday. She has convinced her parents to allow her to set up a beach volleyball court in their backyard. A standard volleyball court is 26 feet by 52 feet. She figures she will need the sand to be one foot deep.

Sand a is 60 lbs for $5
Sand b is 150 lbs for $12

A. What's is the rate brand a is selling for? Give rate and then specify the unit rate.

B.Which brand is offering the better value? Explain.

Answer 1

In each case, divide the cost by the weight to find the cost per pound.
The unit rate is dollars per pound.

Sand a: $5/(60 lb) = 0.08333 $/lb
Sand b: $12/(150 lb) = 0.08 $/lb

A. Sand a is 0.08333 $/lb

B. Sand b is $0.08 $/lb

Sand b has a lower unit rate.
Sand b is is the better value.
If you buy the same amount of sand a and sand b, you will spend less money per pound of sand by buying sand b.